Breakthroughs

Today, we had a couple of breakthroughs.  David started working.  We weren't expecting them to put him to work right after his physical.   He's not making nearly as much as he did at the State, but this is still a very welcome development.  The ethical climate seems far superior.

James also learned today that he has a new job.

The weather broke into the hundreds yesterday.  Today, the high temperature was 107 degrees (41.7 C).  Four degrees below the record for today.  We managed to pick almost all the Blenheim apricots before the weather really heated up.  This variety is ruined by high heat, and we haven't had usable fruit from this tree most years.   We also got cucumbers  and more tomatoes last week.   There are a few luxuries from the garden which are hard to replicate with purchased produce.  

Much of my day was spend making sure the dogs would be O.K. in the hot weather.  David had to go to his Mom and Dad's after work to repair their air conditioning.  He will need another part to make a thorough repair, but at least it started working.

There were some political milestones, too.  Some ironies among them.

Abundance, June 2010

Gilly has influenced me to start adding photos to my blog.  She posts so many photos which remind us to look for beauty in the world.   Ditto Sissy Willis, who likes introverts and cats, among other people, animals and things.

My first photo here features some abundance from our garden.  Part of the early harvest this year.  It always seems a little bit miraculous to me that we can grow things like this in the garden:

Details about the early harvest can be found here. Follow the links if you like.

I cooked most of the squashes shown above, plus a few more, on Sunday for Munch and Mingle after church. People loved it. I made two variations on this recipe: one with bacon, topped with Colby/Jack cheese, and one with an Ancho chile, ground red pepper and Pepper Jack cheese.

Our little grand-nephew didn't eat any of the squash, though he was less picky about the desserts. The abundance of food in our country makes pickiness possible. I took him to Target on Saturday to keep him occupied while his Dad was at a wedding. He spent more than two hours testing all the demonstration toys with a button, lever or electronic gadget. He wanted them all. Had to settle for a yo-yo. Abundance can be frustrating when you're five and can't have it all. But he is learning to appreciate some more important things in life.

In a discussion with Uncle David about who should get to watch his choice of TV show, he said, "Uncle David, today is not about you. Today is about me." He later modified this statement based on the reaction he got. And he made sure I saved some ice cream for his Dad when I got some for him.

Stephen R. Covey says that small children share more easily when they have a sense that they really possess their toys.  It's like they cannot give what they do not have. I haven't quite figured out how this would apply to control of a TV remote, however.

MORE ABUNDANCE AND GENEROSITY

Medical Miracles: Our friend Hala, in Hawaii, told us that our friend Alice, in Texas, had normal tests 100 days after her bone marrow transplant for a rare blood disease. What a miraculous procedure.

A baby hears for the first time with a cochlear implant. A young woman hears for the first time in many years. Astounding. A lot of people engaged in a great deal of work to make those moments possible.

Other Miracles:  The power of a simple smile at the right time.

Some cautionary thoughts on preserving conditions which allow for continued abundance in a society: End the War on Wisdom. Having a good heart is a wonderful thing. Having a good heart informed by timeless wisdom is a much better, and more difficult, achievement.

Memorial Day, 2010

Things are quiet here today. It's a good day for contemplation.

Temperatures are forecast to be in the 90s for the first time after several weeks of below-normal temperatures. It's a pretty day. The garden is mostly in, and we had our first squash from the garden a couple of days ago. It's been cool enough that we're still getting a few peas from the latest variety, a super-sweet one (like super-sweet corn). And the little "summer turnips" were still good on Saturday. We'll see how 90 degree weather changes the flavor.

James and Uncle David took James' little son to see the Avenue of Flags at our little local cemetery, during his second outing of the day. Something he will remember for a long time. There was a ceremony there this morning as well. A good thing.

I started looking for thoughts about Memorial Day yesterday, in preparation for today. I found several, along with images and music. You might find something personally meaningful among the links here. Hope your day is a memorable one.

Happy Easter

Not a bad Easter Day here.  Nothing earth-shaking, which is usually a good thng.   Conference was on TV - some things to ponder, and some lovely music, too.  Hopeful music - before, during and after the conference sessions.  Including a choir performance in a big arena in a spectacular setting, which I had not seen before.

I fixed dinner for a bunch of men:  David, our nephew James, Ken, Elder Black and Elder Sanders.  The potato salad seems to have been the most popular item.  Kind of early in the year for potato salad.  It was the only thing I made today which required more than minimal effort.

James has moved in with us for a while, and has just gotten a job with a very irregular schedule.  But it's work.  We've also been in a mess around the house, moving things around for James, and for David's wall re-finishing projects.  David and James installed a new double door in the media room Friday.  The old one was poorly made.  It did not stand up to the weather.  And Troy the Giant Dog scratching when he wanted attention didn't improve the door's appearance, either.

It rained a little today, and more is forecast for tomorrow.  We can use it.   The air is fresh.  All the animals are O.K.  I got to talk on speaker phone with Keira, Wally, Lorilee and Sherm.  They're a little surprised about our tomato  project this year.   Lorilee talked about how people in Russia often leave the city for  country houses - tiny to large dachas -  in summer.  This may help account for the numerous open-pollinated tomato varieties from the former USSR.  Additionally, I imagine that with the food distribution problems in the old USSR, a lot of people informally shared tomato seeds with each other.  And the USSR did have some formal plant-breeding programs as well. 

Yesterday, our new neighbors brought over tamales, grilled meat and birthday cake (in three separate trips) from the big birthday bash held for their niece, a toddler.  The party featured big strings of ballons, rows of tables and chairs on the recently-poured patio slab and a bounce house for the kids.  The party got started early in the day and was pretty sizable by evening.  There were follow-up activities today for people who stayed overnight.  It's so interesting, this Mexican affection for huge parties for tiny people.  I went over for a few minutes.  It was windy, but the men barbecuing and the kids in the bounce house didn't seem to mind.  Nice people.

David and James are both becoming attached to the man of the house, also named David.  My David has helped them roof the house,  and he either helped with or lent them tools for other construction projects.  The neighbor David has sprayed weeds on the street side of our property and has introduced us to some new drip irrigation equipment.  He calls me "Mrs. Carolyn".  Or "Mrs. Caro".  Now that he knows me better.  "Caro" is my name to several friends in town.   They just all seem to decide eventually to call me that,   

It's nice to have neighbors again.  Neighbors who act like neighbors.  We have a lot to be thankful for today, especially with the message of Easter added in.     

At the Edges

We have just gone through, I think, the edge of winter and spring here.  A few days ago, we had a light frost.  Shortly thereafter, the high temperature was 79 degrees, falling to 37 degrees at night.  I think we have moved off the edge of winter and spring, and we plan to plant tomatoes out tomorrow.  The weather is wonderful.  Going through the mild anxiety of deciding when it is safe to plant is a minor thing to gardeners like us, but it can be a big thing to farmers.  Some California tomato farmers apparently lost their bet with the weather this year when the frost hit.  There are rumors that tomato prices will be high this year.

"Living on the edge" may connote excitement to some people.  And sometimes the anxiety produced by potential threats or danger (manufactured danger, in the case of "extreme sports", etc.) may prompt one to take positive or daring actions one would not otherwise take.  But today, I was again reminded of the people who live at the edges of society in a way that does not connote striving for achievement, other than the achievement of surviving another day.

We went to Fresno, and saw several people advertising for handouts at the side of the road.  Most of the signs said that the people holding them were veterans.  I think this is, in many cases, not true.  But in some cases, it is true.  We passed by all of these people.  I had heard one person like this bragging on a local radio talk show about all the money he made in this manner.  It's hard sometimes to tell where genuine needs are.

But on the way home, we stopped in Selma to go to the supermarket.  As we passed an empty building which was once a drug store, David noticed a woman standing in the cart return area, under a wide overhang.  Somehow, he knew that this was a person with a real need.

He handed me a wad of small bills to give to her (no wanting to scare her by the approach of a man).  She came away from the wall to meet me as I approached her.  It was clear from some hygiene problems  that this was a person who was avoiding situations where she would be around other people.

I asked if she needed some cash.  She said yes.  She thumbed through the bills, and then quietly asked if I needed a dollar back.  She thought that we had given her all the money we had.  Though we have had some worries about money lately, her offer to give back part of the little we had given her put things in a different perspective.

David wanted to take her home, because he thought she needed someone to take care of her and get into a better situation.  But that sort of thing is a legal impossibility in this day and age.  We tried years ago to find a similar way to help young man who was in a worse condition that this woman.  Our governmental and legal institutions limit acts of good will by private citizens.

David went back to talk with her, and she said that she would be moving back to a motel when her check came.  We pray that it won't be too long.

George Washington's Birthday, 2010

Well, I haven't posted here since New Year's Eve and it's George Washington's Birthday already.

It's been a busy beginning of the year. We have (thankfully) had more rain than last year. But some  politicians,  bureaucrats and environmentalists are still set on dramatically limiting irrigation water to the West Side, despite the greater-than-normal rainfall. Our region's unemployment rate is likely to remain among the highest in the nation. One of the most productive food-growing areas in the world is being taken out of production. More wrangling ahead.

We also had some beautiful sunny days in January, sort of like Southern California January days. Then more rain, and chillier weather, even a little fog. Worrisome during apricot and peach blossom time. But we need the water.

Aunt Helen

Perhaps the most notable personal thing which has happened since the beginning of the year was our fond farewell to David's Aunt Helen at her funeral Saturday. She was staying with David when we got married, and she continued to stay with us for a while before moving in with David's Mom and Dad. David told the  people at the funeral about Aunt Helen's contented reaction to his insistence that she not wait for him to tell her what to do.  And he told the story about  her over-enthusiastic jump into the rocking chair, which went backward through the window.  She was lots of fun. We'll miss her a lot.  So will  other people.

At 92, though, she was ready to go home. She did not have an easy life.  She had developed some difficult health problems.

Her childhood was one of extreme poverty.   But you would not know it from her cheerful, straightforward, fun-loving manner. Nice to think of her with her husband, Uncle Pete, again.

We took a wrong turn on the Weedpatch Highway, on the way to the funeral, and saw the little town of Lamont near Bakerfield, where Aunt Helen once lived with Uncle Pete and their children. The town has nice homes behind fancy gates next to run-down trailers with goats in the front yard. It also features a refinery, and many typical elements of a hard-scrabble rural California town. When Aunt Helen and Uncle Pete were first married, they lived in a tent. Living in a home in Lamont was a big step up for them.

Trip to Utah

We went for another short trip to Utah early in the month. We got to see some wonderful mountain vistas and we went to a family birthday dinner celebration for Jake and  others at Rainbow Gardens, where I swam as a child, and where cousin Marie once got a nasty shin injury, as I recall. The swimming pools are gone now. The clientele got too rowdy. The bowling alley survived longer, but it's gone now, too. Rainbow Gardens has gone moderately up-scale.

The Ogden River runs under a corner of the building, and you can go onto the porch in the (now) gift shop and watch the water. An ancestor of the King Family which owns this establishment gave my grandparents credit for their photography business during the Great Depression.  They always expressed gratitude for this act of kindness.

We also got to visit with Keira, and we saw where Wally works.   I heard a book review at Mom's book club, in a beautiful home in the hills.  I took charge of their newly inherited little dog.

We took a look at the Felix home up the road from Mom.  It's for sale again.  Probably not an option for us at this time.  Big yard, big kitchen, out-dated, needs work.  Not that David couldn't do the work.

Music

Mom took us, and two of her friends, to a Utah Symphony Pops concert featuring Big Bad Voodoo Daddy  during the second half of the program.   The first half of the program featured standard Pops fare such as the Hungarian Dance No. 5, Sabre Dance and the Beautiful Blue Danube.  The conductor, David Cho, was chatty and engaged in a little Pops-type comedy - even juggling during the "Dance of the Comedians".  They played a Big Band medley.  It was all great.

The guest artists were refreshingly non-nihilistic and non-whiny for contemporary pop music - mostly a Big Band "retro" sound with other jazz and contemporary flavors. They're rather self-promoting showmen. Tons of energy. They did some familiar Cab Calloway pieces. They involved the audience as singers in some of them. Noisy. Fun, brash, theatrical, but not the ultimate in musicianship. It was an interesting cultural encounter for many regular symphony patrons. Some felt open-minded listening to this group.  Others were not sure quite what to think. Mom's friend Valeen said  "I don't like being yelled at".  I can barely imagine what their reaction would be to, say, Lady GaGa.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's original works are no match for, say, Gershwin. Still, I think it's nice that they are successful. Although they've been doing the rounds with pops orchestras, I have a feeling that the "Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Experience" would be more suited to a nightclub stage than to a sliver of stage in front of a big orchestra. When they played with the larger group, the effect was sometimes a bit ponderous.  One interesting effect was their use of bass and tenor (I think) saxophones playing the same notes. Gave an interesting depth to certain licks.

The symphony's chief clarinetist plays Big Band pieces with more finesse than the famous guest artists did. He's doing an Artie Shaw retrospective concert at a synagogue in Salt Lake soon. We spoke with him backstage before the performance.

I also went with Mom to one of her music clubs, and heard an interesting lesson on the musical sons (and a grandson) of J.S. Bach. I hadn't given them enough credit in the past, I think. One, the "London Bach", was Mozart's mentor, and some of his work sounds like early Mozart. Another wrote pieces which sound more like Haydn, yet another used counterpoint in a way which differed a little from his father's use of this musical style. They deserve to be known as more than the children of J.S. Bach. The family apparently dominated the musical world in Germany for some time.

We also heard a summery Lullaby by contemporary American composer George Winston. Sheet music can be bought and printed online. I think I might even be able to learn it.

On the Home Front

Back home, David's been tearing parts of the house apart and putting them back together, better. I've planted way more tomato seeds than we can use.  That good January weather looked so promising, and it's the standard time for planting tomato seeds here - even a week or two late, actually.  I planted some other things, too. We'll see how they do through the coming storms.

 David and I have both had persistent respiratory infections, like a lot of people in town.  We're starting to get back up to speed.

I buried our shy, shy kitty Brewster today. I think he had been hit by a car.  David saw a cat he though looked like Brewster at the edge of the road a ways from the house, and I went to check.  Sure looked like Brewster, though I couldn't find the knot that had always been on his tummy (the Vet didn't seem concerned - don't know what it was).  I didn't look too hard, though.  He had been feeling a little punky before he disappeared a couple of days ago, I think.  But he was still eating, etc. He had let me pick him up and pet him a few times during the last couple of weeks, which was rare behavior for him. But he was terrified when I took him in the house, and he would not let me look into his face. He was being extra affectionate with the other cats toward the end of his life, too.

He was too shy to have been a full-fledged "pet" - one of those cats who sometimes panic when you try to pet them and nearly die of fright on a trip to the vet.  But it's nice to have a half-wild cat around. Especially a gentle one. We'll miss him.

We've learned of some very serious challenges  for friends.  One young friend has just undergone a bone marrow transplant for a rare blood disorder.  She's grateful for the chance of a cure.  Another friend's grandson was born with displaced organs.  She was highly touched by a nurse who expressed appreciation for being able to help families with problems like these.

We need to count our blessings.  Loving family and friends, people who help, rain, etc., etc.

Happy New Year!

Tending skittish dogs tonight - they're afraid of fireworks and firearms. Not very New Years Eve-ish. But no matter. There's a "blue moon" tonight: the second full moon of the month. We can listen to Ella Fitzgerald.

We've had an interesting week: the furnace went out on Christmas Eve day and David did a not-to-subtle reindeer imitation on Christmas morning - stomping on the roof when he got stuck after the ice re-froze while he was up there. I squirted it down again and he made it off the roof safely - only slipping once. He needed a part, so our heat was mostly from baking in the oven and from a little parabolic space heater in the bathroom. It was almost enough. Makes you think about how much you heat the house up in the summer when you turn on the oven. David got the part Monday - 5 days (well, counting part-days) of a cool-ish house. I was glad we weren't in North Dakota.

My Christmas morning heating project was baking cornbread. David and Ken had some with pinto beans for breakfast. I made cornbread dressing and marinated broccoli salad to take to David's Mom and Dad's for Christmas Dinner. Prime rib, 4 kinds of pie, etc. Lots of people there. Lots of conversation. Since I can't eat corn, I made some bread dressing for myself with a little leftover bread from Christmas, fresh sage, onions, celery and chicken broth, but I didn't take it to dinner. There was plenty of food there.

Since I got some people cardamom pods for Christmas, I made some orange-cardamom pumpkin bread on Saturday to warm up the house, and some butter-pecan applesauce bread (recipe needs a little work). I decided that a tiny mortar and pestle was not sufficient for crushing cardamom seeds, and I discovered that tapping it with a hammer in a heavy plastic bag (from a cracker box) works much better. Feels sort of primitive to go out to the garage to beat spices to powder. But it's much less primitive than the actual primitive task of grinding grains with a smooth rock. We take so many things for granted.

We've got ham for tomorrow. I got blackeyed peas and a Pasilla pepper for this New Year's Salad.

The doggie logistics have dumbed me down for now. Don't feel like doing much. At the moment, I have Lucky and Troy. David has Maggie. Our geriatric dogs, Sparky and Dottie, are getting deaf and so far they're O.K. in their usual hangouts. Sparky may need to come in later. Little Buddy is not afraid of the noise, and stays in the big doghouse with his little heater. Things are fine, but not exactly festive.

I'm not feeling too philosophical right at the moment, either. But I found some interesting images and music before Christmas which you might like. And then some information about Hanukkah, if you're up for a little deeper thought. Or, for a more personal topic, an Alternative to New Years Resolutions, The Uberlist.

Hope everyone has a great year.